Kentish Express Ashford & District
Car maker stumped by freak fob incident
A car manufacturer says that an incident in which an electronic key opened and locked another identical car in an Ashford car park was a “dramatically small” possibility.
Nigel and Hilary Mitchell from New Romney went shopping in Ashford town centre last month, and discovered upon returning that their key fob opened a silver Kia Rio exactly like theirs but belonging to somebody else.
A spokesperson for Kia said: “Our engineers in Korea are concerned that this incident occurred, but the probability for such an occurrence is so dramatically small that without full physical access to both the Mitchell’s vehicle and the vehicle that unlocked in a laboratory it is impossible to say why this occurred.
“The total number of ID possibilities amounts to 16,777,216 individual codes for the Rio, making such an event infinitesimally small.”
Mr Mitchell, 63, parked at the Lidl and Park Club gym car park on Thursday September 22 at around 1pm.
He returned to the car he believed was his wife’s and put a pink lamp they had just bought on the back seat.
He said: “I approached the car which I thought was my wife’s and pressed the key fob to open the door. It opened, then I opened the back door and put the lamp on the seat.”
Mr Mitchell then spotted a red cradle for a hands-free device or sat nav which was not theirs.
He managed to immediately lock the other car back up, and discovered their Rio close by with just one car in between.
They were also able to unlock their own car with the same keys and drove away, but realised they had left the pink lamp in the other silver Rio.
Mrs Mitchell, 66, said: “I thought it was impossible!”
Kia said the Mitchells would not have been able to drive the other car because their immobiliser would only work in their vehicle.
Despite the Mitchells opening and locking the car, the owners would have been able to unlock and drive it but might have found that it didn’t unlock with the first remote ‘click’.
The Mitchells have had no one come forward offering to return their lamp.
‘The probability for such an occurrence is so dramatically small’
Mr Mitchell added: “We’ve had no similar incidents since. It would be nice to get the lamp back, and also to meet up with the people who own the other Rio so I can apologise!”
Have you discovered a pink lamp in your car which doesn’t belong to you? Contact kentishexpress@thekmgroup. co.uk or call 01233 623232